Friday, February 27, 2004

"SINGAPORE Armed Forces First Sergeant Koe Seng Wah had already had too many glasses of beer when he got behind the wheel of his car on Sept 13 last year.

It did not stop him from exceeding the speed limit though. Shortly after he left Tengah Air Base at about 4.15pm, he hit a 23-year-old cyclist, who died at the scene.

Yesterday, Koe, 31, was jailed four months for causing the death of the cyclist through his recklessness.

A district court heard that the breath analyser test he took about two hours after the accident showed he had 78 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of his breath - more than twice the legal limit of 35 micrograms per 100ml.

The cyclist, Nanyang Technological University engineering undergraduate Alvin Boey, was on the road with a group of friends in Jalan Bahar, which has a speed limit of 60kmh, when the accident happened.

Koe, who was driving his car at about 70kmh, was on his way to pick up his wife and year-old son, when he spotted Mr Boey and his friends on the inside lane, travelling in the same direction.

Instead of slowing down or moving to the right lane, Koe continued driving on the inside lane at the same speed, and hit Mr Boey's bicycle.

The undergrad was flung onto the windscreen of Koe's car, landing so heavily that he cracked it before ending up on the road.

Investigations later revealed that Koe had finished work at the airbase at about noon and gone to the mess hall where he drank beer for about four hours until he left.

In his mitigation, he told the court he had a clean driving record before the accident. He also said he was remorseful and had swerved right after he hit Mr Boey to avoid running over him.